Why Aren’t App Designers as Famous as Chefs?

In a world that can celebrate and fetishize the most obscure chefs, it’s a relevant question: Why aren’t the world’s best app designers renowned?

I posed that question, and many others, to John Maeda (@johnmaeda), whose new gig may be the single most interesting in Silicon Valley.

Starting this month, Maeda is the design partner at one of the Valley’s most powerful venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. It’s his job to evaluate the role of design in potential Kleiner investments, while also helping portfolio companies refine the design of their products and flow of their work.

Silicon Valley is new territory for Mr. Maeda, who just resigned after six years as president of the Rhode Island School of Design. He previously worked at the MIT Media Lab, where he experimented with design, media, technology, and the arts.

Here’s an edited and abridged version of our conversation, which took place at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

WSJ: Cool job. But what in the heck does it mean?

Maeda: We’ve hit this plateau where technology alone is not enough to sell a product. So what is it that we need to make us want something? It’s about the design. My role is to help companies understand what that secret is. And also to find more people out there — young entrepreneurs — who are designer-based.

WSJ: In your extensive three weeks on the job, how have you thought about design and commerce? They can be one in the same, or entirely separate.

John Maeda, design partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Dennis K. Berman

Maeda: The word “design” is poorly designed. It could mean focusing on the perfection of this cup [holds a coffee cup in his hand.] It may cost 10 times the other cups, but an artist may say, “I don’t really care. I’m going to show the world my craftsmanship.”

Then there is design, such as, “I want to design a hat that makes everyone warmer.” This is the design that services commerce, versus the design that serves a kind of ideal. They are two different things.

You don’t get good design without good technology. Here’s an example: Think about the experience of us growing up as kids, and remember the back seat of the car? There was a hump in the back. And then we went from rear-wheel drive to front-wheel drive and it went away. You could never have designed away the hump. The solution was the technology changed.

Or for instance my daughter was looking at the old iPhone. She asked, “Why isn’t there a rear-facing camera?” But think about it. Without that camera, the whole “selfie” boom wouldn’t have happened. So technology, well-placed, opens up design possibilities.

WSJ: But isn’t “design’” often called in to solve things that haven’t been well thought out or engineered?

Maeda: When you think about where design is applied, you think about applying it at the end of things, because design was traditionally just decoration. That’s how we used to do it. But that’s just decorative design. But talking about products that use technology, the designers that understand the technology and constraints now offer better input to the process. It’s a lot better than saying:”Our phone is done. Make it look pretty.”

WSJ: So that requires a special kind of person.

Maeda: It requires a special kind of person. A special kind of company. A special kind of leadership that seeks that value.

WSJ: What’s your view of app design right now?

Maeda: I’m on a crusade to reach out to the best app designers because I’m really curious about how great app designs come to be. Many of the great app designers are not the ones you think. There are some great experiments.

The Solar weather app has been hailed for its attractive design.

Solar is one of my favorites. It’s a weather app. Beautiful. And I looked at it and asked, “What kind of person made this app?” When I interviewed him, he said, “I just knew what I wanted it to look like and I knew just enough technology to make it happen.” That’s a common thing. You can have the idea, but if you can’t build it, it doesn’t mean anything. There is a certain breed of person who can do both.

WSJ: How many people can do that? A thousand? Five thousand?

Maeda: At least a few thousand out there. They are all over the world. They don’t know what they have. My job is to find them and work with them.

WSJ: Any traits you’ve identified that these people have?

Maeda: When I taught at MIT, I had this belief that in a thousand engineering students I could find two who were curious about the arts. In a thousand design students, I could find a few hundred curious about technology. Over time it’s changed.

I would also ask students one question: “Who buys a gift versus who makes a gift?” With that distribution, you could determine who actually wants to make something that someone else might want. To me that connects to: “How do I want to connect myself to the people I love the most?” Through my hands or through my purchase?

Those who made the gifts were more than likely to be incredibly good at making something you wanted to touch.

WSJ: How does a company balance the need to ‘ship the product’ with fulfilling a design goal?

Maeda: I have a theory that the designer who wants to design a perfect cup cannot function in that world. This is the true craftstman artisan. It’s those who can make compromise and within constraints that can create better outcomes. This is what economist Hebert Simon said is ‘satisficing.”

WSJ: Money. How do you feel about money? Kleiner’s job is to make money.

Maeda: I’m not against capitalism. That’s why I got my MBA, to get more comfortable with money. When I was at MIT, they kept telling me: “You’re a creative person, we’ll worry about the money.” So as someone who makes things, I like to understand this.

WSJ: Why don’t we know the names of great app designers in the same way we know the names of great chefs?

Maeda: It’s because of the museums. The cultural system has adopted something or not chosen to. When MoMA acquired video games for the first time, there were two camps, with one saying it was terrible. We’re still behind in the cultural sense. Why? Because it hasn’t been made into an art show yet.

WSJ: Should we know the names of great app designers?

Maeda: That’s what my journey is. To reach out to app designers and ask, “Who are you?” I want to know your name and find a way where more museums understand what you do.

WSJ: What if apps had a designer’s signature at the bottom?

Maeda: That’s going to happen. I think that’s what I’m going to be able to go after. To produce the cultural shift that opens up that space.